Dress up your Android for Christmas

One of the best things about toting around an Android phone is the way you can make it yours. Wallpapers, widgets, icon sets, even system apps can all be customized just about any darn way you please, and Christmas is a great time to do it! We dug around and found a few things you could use to get your Android phone into the Christmas spirit, check 'em out after the break.

Ashley Madison for Android: A bad app for doing bad things

It's tough to listen to satellite radio these days without hearing an advertisement for Ashley Madison, an online community that boasts having more than 12 million anonymous members looking for some degree of companionship. The difference between Ashley Madison and other dating sites is it openly caters to people looking to have discreet affairs.

I'm happily married, and having an affair with someone online isn't exactly on my agenda anytime soon, much to the relief of my wife and kids. But I also can't escape those damn commercials. And since Ashley Madison has an Android application, I figured it was in my professional duty to check it out. A few thoughts, after the break.

NORAD tracks Santa and you can, too, with the official app

Norad tracking Santa started back in 1955, pretty much by accident when a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement accidentally printed the number to the Continental Air Defense Command center as the number to call in order to get in touch with Santa. Ever since then the Continental Air Defense Command center now known as NORAD has been tracking Santa every Christmas creating a tradition for many folks.

This year, a new Santa tracking app has been released and is now ready for download. With it, you can track Santa's progress as he travels across the world delivering presents to good boys and girls.

Plus, you can play the included Elf Toss game that is actually quite fun. You have to help the Elf's toss presents to Santa all while avoiding the holes in the ice -- otherwise, you may lose some presents and they won't make their way. Just remember -- Santa hasn't left the North Pole yet but when he does, this app will let you know. Download is past the break for you all.

And on Christmas Eve, you also can search for "Santa" in Google Maps and track that way.

Dropbox v2.0 with Ice Cream Sandwich optimizations goes live in the Android Market

Having previously slipped a preview of the Dropbox update with optimizations for Ice Cream Sandwich, we all knew it was coming but we didn't know when, exactly. As it turns out, the latest update for Dropbox is now available in the Android Market and ready to be downloaded. Aside from the new UI and Ice Cream Sandwich optimizations, Dropbox has a few other tricks built in:

Favorites: quick offline access to files

Bulk upload photos and videos

Rename files and folders

Single-tap access to all file and folder actions

Improved gallery view

Upload from and export to local storage

Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements

Whether you're a hardcore Dropbox user or just a casual user, this update is one not to skip over. You'll find some more screenshots and the download link past the break for you all.

Shadowgun THD optimized for Tegra 3 devices

The good news: NVIDIA's shouting from the rooftops that the game Shadowgun (read our review) has been updated and optimized for Tegra 3 devices. And, the bad news: There's only one Tegra 3 device available today, and it's pretty hard to come by. But if you're lucky enough to actually have an ASUS Transformer Prime (again, check out our full review), you've gotta check this one out.

GoHow Airport a decent free option for air travelers

If you're hopping on a plane today for the holidays, there's a new free travel app that's worth giving a look. GoHow Airport is a simple app that gives you information on a score of airports. You get an overview, list of shops, and info on food and drinks, services, parking and ground transportation. There's also a basic internal layout of the airport, and city weather info. The interesting thing here is that the airports themselves partner with Gohow to ensure the latest up-to-date information.

Also, GoHow Airport serves as a flight and trip itinerary manager. It's got listings for dozens and dozens of airports, and the flight listings are simple but work as advertised.

A final notice everyone -- if you have some projects sitting around in App Inventor, and would like to keep them, either for some crazy time-capsule experiment or in the hopes of migrating them to MIT's App Inventor project, you've only got a handful of days left. Come December 31, Google will be taking the whole kit and caboodle offline, and projects that haven't been downloaded are lost forever.

Getting them is easy, just log into appinventorbeta.com and hit the "Download All Projects" button as shown above. Keep them safe, and when MIT gets things back up and running in 2012, you're ready to go. For more information about MIT's implementation, have a look at their Learning Center.

ASUS Transformer Prime games

The ASUS Transformer Prime is the first of the next generation Android tablets, packing the brand new quad-core Tegra 3 chip and offering a boatload of performance while managing the battery life. We've sort of fell in love with it because of it's thin and light build and the way it runs Honeycomb. It would be the tablet to get if you're in the market for one.

Something that you've heard us (well, mostly me) talk about is how well this beast handles games. All the beef under the hood is great for normal daily use, and it handles multimedia very nicely, but cracking open some games that really tax the system was something we had to show you. That's where I come in. As a child at heart, I love to spend some time playing games on my tablet, and have grown to love more than a few of the great ones developed for Android. The Prime takes everything to a new level -- both games that have been optimized by NVIDIA, as well as standard OpenGL games built for all devices. While some of it you just can't tell from a video -- things like colors and lighting effects -- some things you sure can. Hit the break, and check out how smooth and fluid the Prime runs a handful of CPU eating 3D games that I throw at it.

If you are a Firefox user on the computer odds are that you have already tried Firefox for Android, but if not there is no better time to do so then now. Featuring a freshly redesigned tablet interface, some additional features along with a faster start up time they are certainly aiming to bring the best possible experience to mobile. In addition they have opened up camera support so developers can now integrate camera functionality directly into websites, which is a pretty neat feature. So whether you currently use Firefox for Android or not, you will certainly want to hit the break and grab it from the download links!

How to watch the Android Central Podcast on your Google TV

Google TV might not have taken off like some folks expected it to, but those of us who use it (especially with the Honeycomb/Google TV 2.0 update) know that it can be a great way to get the web into your living room. A cool thing I've been fooling with is watching my podcasts on the 42-incher while kicked back in my recliner, so I'm sharing my guide for watching the Android Central Podcast on your Google TV with everyone. Wait until you see our pretty faces in high-def on the big screen! Hit the break and follow along.

Google Currents has received its first update, with no new features to report but a couple of important fixes.

In the changelog we get stability improvements, and performance improvements in data sync. The second of these in particular will be welcome, with sync initially proving to be quite slow in some cases.

The Myriad Alien Vue is a system that allows TV and set-top box manufacturers to bring Android and HTML5 apps to their existing products with no decrease in performance. By offering OEMS this functionality along with a branded app store, Myriad is hoping manufactuers will be enticed to integrate their services to offer end users a better overall experience. The concept is interesting and it looks rather nice but adoption is a key thing here -- if manufactuers don't adopt the technology then it really isn't all that useful to anyone.

Either way, we're not really seeing a slow down in the efforts of folks looking to win the war of the living room but it's a fun battle to watch and we'll be keeping our eye on all the action. Jump on past the break for a quick look at Myriad Alien Vue in action and expect more when CES kicks off.

Dropbox update preview showing off its ICS optimization

The guys over at Dropbox have slipped a preview of a forthcoming update to their Android application out into their forums, complete with optimization for Ice Cream Sandwich.

Besides looking pretty sweet on ICS, there are also a couple of other nice additions that are forthcoming with this release. These include single tap access to all file and folder actions, ability to favourite files for quick offline access, and bulk upload for photos and videos.

This release isn't yet available in the Android Market, so if you want to try it out, the download and full changelog can be found by hitting the source link.

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